File This Under We Are Not a Monarchy: “Off With Their Heads” Statement from Arne Duncan to California3 comments

In an outrageous statement issued this week, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan threatened to withhold educational funding from Calfornia because of AB 484. The California bill, moving through California’s legislature, can exempt millions of students from Common Core tests, at least for a little while.

But Duncan won’t have it. He must have his student data without delay!

I will file this one under “We Are Not a Monarchy And Arne Duncan is Not a King.”

And he dropped another ridiculous bomb: He said that federal law demands that California give the tests. Should we laugh? Duncan picks and chooses which federal laws he feels like respecting.

Is there some law he’s referring to that trumps the General Educational Provisions Act (GEPA)which prohibits Duncan from supervising education and testing in any state? GEPA law states:

“No provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system…”

Or is Duncan referring to some kind of a federal law that suddently trumps the U.S. Constitution? The supreme law of our land demands the federal government say the heck out of the local business of educating and/or testing students.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” -10th Amendment, U.S. Constitution.

Running without authority, running just on audacity, Duncan said, “While standards and tests may not match up perfectly yet, backing away entirely from accountability and transparency is not good for students, parents, schools and districts.”

Accountability and transparency to whom?

States and localities are in no way to be “held accountable” to the federal government for local educational decisions. We have always been and still ought to be sovereign states; we are a Republic of Republics.

We are accountable only to our local governance structures, and primarily to the parents of the children. This is why parents are increasingly opting their children out of common core tests. And so should states.

“A request from California to not measure the achievement of millions of students this year is not something we could approve in good conscience. Raising standards to better prepare students for college and careers is absolutely the right thing to do, but letting an entire school year pass for millions of students without sharing information on their schools’ performance with them and their families is the wrong way to go about this transition. No one wants to over-test, but if you are going to support all students’ achievement, you need to know how all students are doing. If California moves forward with a plan that fails to assess all its students, as required by federal law, the Department will be forced to take action, which could include withholding funds from the state.

“In states like California that will be field-testing more sophisticated and useful assessments this school year, the Department has offered flexibility to allow each student to take their state’s current assessment in English language arts and math or the new field tests in those subjects. That’s a thoughtful approach as states are transitioning to new standards. While standards and tests may not match up perfectly yet, backing away entirely from accountability and transparency is not good for students, parents, schools and districts.</em

And here’s California Superintendent Torklason’s response:

“Our goals for 21st century learning, and the road ahead, are clear. We won’t reach them by continuing to look in the rear-view mirror with outdated tests, no matter how it sits with officials in Washington”

I wish Torklason would have fully condemned the Common Core tests and his state’s alignment to these experimental standards entirely. But at least he told Washington to go bark up someone else’s tree. Sort of.

3 responses to “File This Under We Are Not a Monarchy: “Off With Their Heads” Statement from Arne Duncan to California”

WE MUST HEAD UP A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO PULL OUR KIDS OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. All states need to stop sending education dollars to the federal government. Keep the funds in the state and cut off the federal government. If every state does it then we can put the federal government in its rightful place. Time the states fought back. We need to collect taxes and keep them in the state sending the federal government only what they need to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities. Anything more than that they are on their own. If the states would bite the bullet we will find in short order the state has more money than it ever had before and will not need the intrusion of the federal government. It is like paying off all your credit cards. Suddenly you have so much money in your bank account you don’t have to borrow on credit cards. Debt free is a good thing. It breeds freedom and independence. People we need to start focusing on the real issue. The real issue the federal government has overstepped its bounds and this should be the red line for the states. TIME TO TAKE BACK STATES RIGHTS and tell the federal government to take a hike. The parents have the power to make this happen. LETS START BY GETTING OUR KIDS OUT OF SCHOOL. Parents have a duty to do this. A new car and fancy vacation cannot take priority over our kids. This issue goes much deeper than just our kids. It is the step we need to take to save our country and the future of all kids forever.

Actually, I am with Arne on this one. As a payoff to teachers, the California legislature will do no (publicly reported) student testing for two years — canceling the existing testing immediately, and starting the Common Core testing later. These (existing) tests are the only way parents and taxpayers have of tracking how the schools are doing.

That is exactly what Arne wants you to think, but it is completely wrong. Testing does not accurately reflect anyone. They are very subjective and students may be extremely intelligent and appear to do poorly simply because the test is crap. There is only one true way to determine the success of a school, and that responsibility falls to parents. If more parents would care about their child’s education it would make a huge difference. A parent can tell if their child is learning or not. If a child is not, then the parent needs to get off their rear end and go up to the school and meet with the principle or teacher. This way, if a child is not learning, it is the parents fault for not caring. In contrast, Arne’s idea is that all of this testing will help the Feds and the state ratchet down on schools and in effect, take over the role that parents and citizens should play in the local control of a school. The bottom line is this: ARNE DUNCAN HAS NO SAY IN A DECISION THAT SHOULD BE MADE BY THE REPRESENTATIVES THAT THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA ELECTED TO MAKE DECISIONS FOR THEIR STATE!